An overview on religions, updated August 2011…
Its lonely being a human, there are not many self determining intelligences around. Man, uniquely, has to create his own solutions. We have to create our own purposes, our own justifications, our own stability, our own security, our own dignity & our own worth.
Unlike animals, trees or stars man has no defined place or purpose. Man is the oddball in the whole order of things. We cannot clearly define where animal ends & human begins, nor can we define where human might end or what we might become. We can gain knowledge of the universe, knowledge of physics, of biology, genetics, chemistry & science. All of which is to the good, yet none of it explains the single oddity off one free will self determining species on a minor planet in an otherwise ordinary solar system. A species capable of coordinating its capacity for abstract thought with the hands of a toolmaker. In this whole universe, man is alone. Man is the subject of many potentialities, no fixed boundaries, & many existential uncertainties.
The higher religions are all intentional efforts to address issues unique to humankind.
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In evolution, humanity is little more than a collection of self determining flotsam adrift in void. The first words off the God of the Bible; Gen 1:3 ~Let there be light~ Let there be order; creditworthy purpose & direction to human affairs. It is in God that we have our being, for without Him we are little more than a collection of serial accidents looking for somewhere to happen; thus man invests a great deal of effort in his religions.
Religions need to be based on a common element universal to all people & all you wish to relate to. In chemistry I could use water, as water is present in man & in all living things. Yet man is not just chemistry. The Indigenous religions all held a common community in nature. As man is 80% water, man is also over 90% nature in common community with the animals. Yet man is not just an animal.
Addressing the challenge of higher development the developed religions based themselves on elements unique to our humanity; elements which distinguish man ~from~ the animals. As the DNA of apes & the DNA of humans is (I am told) 97% the same, what distinguishes man from ape is a mere 3% of our DNA. As mans physical, biological & motor functions are held in common with animals, the only thing which distinguishes man from the animals is our capacity in abstract concepts. On this small margin we are uniquely human.
All the developed religions are variants of this narrow but uniquely human band; the ability to conceptualize in abstracts.
Most of the Asian religions are head trips or mind games. They are intellectual or reasoned explanations of the world; some based on precepts which seem sound, others on precepts more questionable. Yet whether apparently sound or doubtful none of these precepts can be validated, so they are non concrete. Yet mans commitment to the developed abstracts allows him to live & relate in a w/holistic paradigm of his own reasoned explanations as if they are real.
Judaism & Christianity are based on love. Where animals only feel affection for immediate relations, man can love in developed abstracts, he can love ideals, he can love humanity as a whole, life as a whole & even love God. None of this love can be objectively validated, thus it is non concrete. Yet mans capacity to love in abstract concepts allows Christians to build a w/holistic paradigm of inter-relationship of love with all things.
Islam chose fear. Where animals only fear direct danger, man is able to fear in developed abstract concepts. (Paranoia) None of these fears can be validated, they do not comprise clear & present danger so are ~non-concrete~ Yet man capacity for developed abstracts allows him to treat these fears as real; again building a w/holistic paradigm of inter-relationship with all things.
Thus while chemistry defines man by his chemical elements; Indigenous religions define man by the great deal he holds in common with nature; the developed religions define themselves by the element which distinguishes man ~from~ nature. That element; our ability to experience the world; indeed to shape our experiencing; by humanities unique capacity to conceptualize in the developed abstracts. While all religions use a combination of our three abstract capacities, they are principally shaped by the one they give ~primacy~ to.
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Abraham decided to disdain all other Gods, & vest the whole human future in just one God. A risky proposition, what happens if you guess the wrong one? Abraham chose the right God, the Most High God of the Bible; an entity best described as the highest man can aspire to & reasonably presume sound, at any current level of development.
The highest is what man naturally aspires to, reasonably presume sound is as trustworthy as we can have. A God which develops in tandem with mans progress, reverses & development is always ~up to speed~ on current conditions.
Thus was given one God & the same God for all mankind, for all conditions, for all levels of development, for all off time.
The God of the Bible who says, ~thou shalt raise no other Gods above me or beside me; thou shalt have no other God but me~
The Biblical God then needed to choose one off mans capacities in the developed abstracts as the principal medium of mans relationship with him.
Abstract reason is common to all men, yet human reason is a fair weather sailor. As soon as the going gets tough it loses faith & throws in the towel.
Abstract fear is common to all people & is effacious in enforcing compliance. (The word Muslim means ~submit~) Yet fear is a disempowering, destructive negative which enslaves humanity.
Abstract love is also common to all people, & THE good news, love is an empowering constructive positive which people can build out off. Love is faithful & constant. Where reason is dissatisfied & abandons God; love says ~hey its amazing humanity even exists at all; be grateful you are alive to be moaning~
Where reason quits & fear enslaves, love keeps steadfast faith in the hard times in the belief it will be justified in the better times which must surely come. (The God of the good times is the God of the bad times, if you want the fulfillment of mans manifest destiny do not abandon faith in God just because it is sometimes difficult)
In sum, the relationship between the Most High God off the Bible & love is truly inspired & the best humanity can have.
~For God so loved the world He gave his only begotten Son, in order that humanity might be saved in Him~ It is in this that we vest our faith.
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I have sat in groups of Christians dancing, chanting & praying… ~Jesus please come now, all our problems will be solved if you do~ My opinion… NUTS!
I have sat in groups of Muslims, blindly terrified out of their wits. ~Allah please don’t come now, it would have calamitous & irreversible consequence if you did~ My opinion… NUTS!
OK mans always been a bit crazy anyway, so it only matters what you are crazy about.
I will stay with the Jesus freaks, at least they have positive expectations of any direct encounter with Christ, & a bit wacky or not, positive is a constructive hope for humanity.
I cannot support Islam, Muslims have negative expectations of any direct encounter with their Allah entity, & fear is a destructive negative which paralyses & enslaves.
My encounter with over enthused Christians explains why they sometimes overstate the immediate benefits of the Christian faith. My encounter with Muslims explains why they are lovely people, who commit the most monstrous acts without remorse or conscience. (~At a moments notice Islam can generate such a mass of feeling, it breaks the brittle bonds the reformer has so painstakingly established~ Lord Cromer, Viceroy, Egypt 1900)
My Muslim friends tell me ~you are not a Muslim, you dont understand~ I reply, ~I am not a Muslim but I do understand~ Mainly I understand ~informed consent~ to rule of love is a troublesome thing & a challenging thing, but there is hope in it for man; while ~submitting~ to a rule of fear is a bad thing.
I despair for Muslims enslaved by the darkness of Islam; I have deep concerns if Islam ever achieves its Jihad objective; of all mankind submitting to a rule of darkness from which it may never again escape.
Those who were enslaved by Islam 1,500 years ago are still bound to it today. To leave Islam is death; killed by your fellow Muslim’s. To leave Christianity is damnation, a legitimate & self correcting exercise in the misguided use of freewill. A learning experience, thus Christianity has no need to kill apostates; athough we do have a duty to counsel them.
Muslims cannot live in the west & proselytize Islam as ~the answer~ while refusing to be responsible for their own failed countries. Christ said ~by their fruits shall you know~ If Islam is the answer fix your own countries, if you can’t fix your own countries Islam is not an answer but a problem to mankind & a threat to humanity.
Lastly, on the much mentioned subject of the Sharia. Both faiths are based on the Ten Commandments; yet Christianity interprets & administers through love, Islam through fear. Differences in the instruments of administration, leads to irreconcilably different laws.
God bless the liberating mission off the Most High God of the Bible & his Son off love.
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Now to secular matters.
Man is the only creature known to us, who knows right & wrong (moral order) who knows beauty & ugliness, who craves meaning, direction & purpose. These things are only made conscious through us as we perceive things through the prism of this biosphere.
Science is the only developed body of conscious knowledge on the workings in the universe, again made conscious through us as we experience through the prism of this biosphere. Without US the universe might still exist, but there would be no body of conscious knowledge called science.
~WE ARE the centre of the universe; the sun, the moon & the stars revolve around the earth~ That is the immutable truth of theology & it stands on grounds which are self evident.
Science develops our knowledge of the material world & allows us to expand our dominions within it; all of which is to the good. Science needs different centers to operate from; things like evolution & physics are its essential tools of trade.
For myself, I do not posit either, or. (I do not hold if one is true the other must be false) Rather, I accept our dual citizenship of parallel universes whose rules & governances are not always the same as each other.
I know there are some untidy loose ends or grey areas which are contestable matters within this thesis. Yet all off life has some yet to be answered questions, why should the big issues be any different.
I commend the matter of ~dual citizenship~ to every ones attention.
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On Reproduction.
When God said ~go forth & multiply~ he was not talking to a rabbit.
In art, music, industry, science, economics, ethics, economics & technology man has a range of reproductive capacities no rabbit ever dreamed off.
Man procreates new life in many forms; the Biblical ethos ~sex is for the creation of new life~ stands on sound ground. As does the Biblical requirement, those who bring forth new life are responsible for it & accountable, to God; for raising it in creditworthy manner. That applies no matter what form of new life mans sexual activities brings forth.
Sanctity of life can only be achieved if man keeps all his reproductive capacities in a state of managed balance with each other.
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Finally I want to spend a little time on the proposed ~common religion~ which is mainly advanced by academics who work in the cloistered world of the universities.
Meanwhile, in the real world many are heading back to religions as we reach current limits to material growth. Yet they are heading back to the traditional religions; there is about as much grass roots demand for a new common religion as there is grass roots demand to install Esperanto as a new common language… none!
The proponents of this common religion have yet to advance a proposition which comes anywhere near the standard already available in the God of the Bible. They are proposing to reinvent a wheel which is inferior to the wheel we already have. Today man faces many converging problems; overpopulation, environmental limits, economic limits to material growth, the despair of the starving & deprived; the personal breakdown & tendency to social anarchy of the despairing. Even the best of religions will be struggling, this is no time to bring forth a second rate ~common religion~
The general consensus is pre modern age man was religiously competent & technically illiterate; modern man technically competent & religiously illiterate. If we can get past the problem the condition ~half-wit~ may be normative for humanity. (We have never been omnipotent or able to be good at everything at once) Then we need to combine the two competencies into a working relationship with each other, not invent a new common faith based on modern mans religious incompetency
Lastly, the proponents of a common religion hold Christianity will have to abandon its claim on the exclusivity of Christ. It holds Christ is not commonly held by all people; & those excluded suffer from hurt feelings & are variously offended or insulted.
They propose any common religion must be based on the common communities of man. (Humanism per se) The realty is common communities do many things for man, it is a place where we sort out our pecking order, celebrate & strive for achievement, commiserate & support each other in times of hurt & loss. Yet mans common nature is fallen, there is no salvation to be had in any common community of man.
Salvation can only come from a plane other than normal human community, a plane which transcends human normalcy. We are saved exclusively in Christ who bought salvation from a plane ~higher than~ normal human community. This we celebrate in the Eucharist.
In our time of many converging troubles, there is no point in inventing a new common religion if said new faith can accord us no salvation at all.
Those who are proposing this new common religion would be better to invest in a Millennium III upgrade of Christianity. Be off good cheer, there is a salvation in Christ.
On the proposed common religion see ~progressive Christianity~ 12 pages, under Christianity tab. Or refer to the Bible as… the superior authority.
……Blessed be the names of the Father, the Son & the Holy Spirit…… reign forever…amen.
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. Ken Maynard. e-mail… communichristi@gmail.com
. Link to Home-page…. http://www.communichristi.org.nz
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